Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 9

Response to claims made in "Chapter 9: March to Martyrdom"


Claims made in "Chapter 8: Big Trouble In Little Missouri"
A FAIR Analysis of:
One Nation Under Gods
A work by author: Richard Abanes
 Claims made in "Chapter 10: A New Beginning"
...intellectual reasoning and logical thought never had played more than a minor role in their belief system.
—One Nation Under Gods, p. 172
∗       ∗       ∗

171 epigraph, 542n1 (HB) 540n1 (PB)

Claim
  • Hardback edition:

"I combat the errors of the ages;...I solve mathematical problems of universities, with truth—diamond truth; and God is my 'right hand man.'...[God] will make me be God to you in his stead,...and if you don't like it, you must lump it....I have more to boast of than ever any man had....I boast that no man ever did such a work as I."
Joseph Smith
History of the Church, 1844

  • Paperback edition:

"I combat the errors of the ages;...I solve mathematical problems of universities, with truth—diamond truth; and God is my "right hand man" [1843]. God made Aaron to be the mouth piece for the children of Israel, and He will make me be god to you in His stead [1844]. I have more to boast of than ever any man had....I boast that no man ever did such a work as I [1844]."
Joseph Smith
History of the Church

Author's source(s)

Response


172

Claim
  •  Author's quote: "...for Joseph, his followers were more than willing to accept any excuse he might give them...intellectual reasoning and logical thought never had played more than a minor role in their belief system."

Author's source(s)
  • N/A
Response

173

Claim
  • Did Joseph set himself up as "Zion's dictator" in Christ's place until His second coming?

Author's source(s)
  • N/A
Response

174, 541n17 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Brigham Young actually say that Joseph Smith's character "was easily on par with Jesus Christ's?"

Author's source(s)
Response

175, 543n21 (HB) 541n21 (PB)

Claim
  • Is Joseph Smith considered as important to Latter-day Saints' spirituality as Jesus Christ?"
  • Did Levi Edgar Young say that the "grandeur of Joseph Smith's life" was "the all-important truth that the world needed to hear" and that "thousands would turn not to God, but to Joseph."

Author's source(s)
  • 21. Levi Edgar Young, letter dated April 14, 1961. Quoted in Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism—Shadow or Reality?, 5th edition, (Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1987), 252.
Response

175, 541n23 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Brigham Young "twist" John 4:3 in order to apply it to Joseph?

Author's source(s)
Response

175, 542n24 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Joseph suffer from narcissism?

Author's source(s)
  • Robert D. Anderson, Inside the Mind of Joseph Smith: Psychobiography and the Book of Mormon, xxxix, 222-242.
Response

176, 542n26-28 (PB)

Claim
  • Why did Hezekiah McKune, Sophia Lewis and Levi Lewis state that Joseph claimed that he was "nearly equal to" or "as good as" Jesus Christ.

Author's source(s)
Response

177, 544n29 (HB) 542n29 (PB)

Claim
  • Why did Joseph Smith state: "I am the only man that has been able to keep the whole church together....Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it?"

Author's source(s)
Response

178, 544n34 (HB) 542n34 (PB)

Claim
  • Was Joseph boasting of violence when he claimed: "I wrestled with William Wall, the most expert wrestler in Ramus, and threw him?"

Author's source(s)
Response

179, 544n36 (HB) 542n36 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Joseph boast of his fighting skill and his strength when he said: "I feel as strong as a giant....I pulled up with one hand the strongest man that could be found. Then two men tried, but they could not pull me up."

Author's source(s)
  • History of the Church, vol. 5, 466.
Response

178, 544n39 (HB) 542n39 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Jedediah Grant say that Joseph hit a Baptist preacher and and then throw him to the ground so violently that he "whirled round a few times, like a duck shot in the head?"

Author's source(s)
Response
  •  The author's claim is false: Use of sources: Joseph hit a baptist preacher
  •  Misrepresentation of source: Note that Joseph challenged the preacher to a wrestling match, which shocked the sanctimonious man—the "duck shot in the head" does not describe the result of a blow, but is a colorful simile describing how shocked the preacher was at Joseph's remark.

181-182

Claim
  • Were the commissioned officers in the Nauvoo Legion were granted "law-making powers?"

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response
  • The author's source is unclear. Some officers in the Legion were also civic lawmakers (e.g., mayor, councilors, alderman, etc.) but it is not clear what lawmaking powers the author is claiming for militia officers as such.

182, 542n46

Claim
  • Was the Nauvoo Legion simply a "resurrection" of the Danites?

Author's source(s)
  • Hosea Stout, On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, Juanita Brooks, ed., vol. 1, 140-141, 197, 259.
Response
  • In what ways? In what ways were they different?
  • The militia was organized with the sanction of the Illinois legislature, the state supplied arms, and its officers received commissions from the state. [2]

183

Claim
 Author's quote: "Where were all those rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence?"

Author's source(s)

  • None

Response

  •  History unclear or in error: One would assume that the author probably meant to say the "Constitution" or the "Bill of Rights."


186-187, 544n70 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Joseph set up a "shadow-government" called the "Council of Fifty" for the purpose of organizing the "political kingdom of God in preparation for the second coming of Christ?"

Author's source(s)
  • Woodruff, in Kenny, under March 11, 1844, vol. 2, 366.
Response

188, 544n78

Claim
  • Did the Council of Fifty ordain Joseph to be "King and Ruler over Israel?"

Author's source(s)
  • John Taylor, "A Revelation on the Kingdom of God in the Last Days given through President John Taylor at Salt Lake City," June 27, 1882, reprinted in Fred C. Coliier, ed., Unpublished Revelations, vol. 1, 133.
Response

189, 545n83

Claim
  • Did Latter-day Saints believe that "the only acceptable government" would have to be in the form of a global theocracy?
  • Didn't Joseph say "It has been the design of Jehovah, from the commencement of the world, and is his purpose now, to regulate the affairs of the world...to stand as head of the universe, and take the reigns of government into his own hands?"

Author's source(s)
  • Joseph Smith, "The Government of God," Times and Seasons 3 no. 18 (July 15, 1842), 856-857. off-site GospeLink
Response

189

Claim
  • Was Josephs crowned "king of the world?"

Author's source(s)
Response

191

Claim
  • Did Joseph send Orrin Porter Rockwell to kill ex-Governor Boggs?

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response
  • Joseph denied the charge (History of the Church 5:15).
  • Rockwell was tried in Missouri and acquitted. [3]
  • Monte B. McLaws, "The Attempted Assassination of Missouri's Ex-Governor, Lilburn W. Boggs," Missouri Historical Review LX (October 1965), 50-62 examined the evidence and found it insufficient to assign blame to anyone.
  • This is the fallacy of probability

191

Claim
  • Does D&C 98:31 justify the murder of personal enemies?

Author's source(s)
Response

192, 546n98 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Porter Rockwell admit that he had tried to kill Boggs?

Author's source(s)
  • Orrin Porter Rockwell. Quoted in Harold Schindler, Orrin Porter Rockwell, Man of God, Son of Thunder, 80.
  • Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons, 250.
Response

192, 546n99 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Joseph Smith escape both times after he was arrested twice for his alleged role in Boggs' assasination attempt?

Author's source(s)
  • Hallwas and Launius, Cultures in Conflict, 88-89.
Response
  •  History unclear or in error
  • In the first instance, Joseph was arrested by Missourians, and then released since he had been served an illegal warrant— it charged that he had fled Missouri after committing the crime, an impossibility. [4]
  • In the second case, Joseph submitted to arrest and the governor, a probate judge, the U.S. District Attorney for Illinois, and the Illinois Supreme Court found that the arrest warrant from Missouri was illegal. [5]
  • Joseph "escaped" through due process of law; in both cases the warrant was illegal; in the second case, it was so declared by the governor and state supreme court.
  • Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language

192

Claim
  •  Author's quote: "Not until 1841 in Nauvoo...was Smith's seemingly insatiable lust for women and young girls unleashed."

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response

193

Claim
  • Did Joseph Smith advocate the practice of polyandry?

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

193

Claim
  •  Author's quote: "[T]he wives continued to live with their husbands after marrying Smith, but would have conjugal visits from Joseph whenever it served his needs."

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided. Author's opinion.
Response

194, 546n107

Claim
  • Were Heber and his wife Vilate Kimball "too devoted" to each other for Joseph Smith's taste?

Author's source(s)
Response

194

Claim
  • Did Joseph violate a Biblical prohibition on marrying a mother and daughter or two sisters?

Author's source(s)
Response
  • The author cannot make up his mind. First, he tells us that there is no Biblical approval or command to practice plural marriage (see p. 305, (PB)). This claim is false, since levirate marriage is commanded by the Bible (Deuteronomy 25:5-6), and laws are given about the proper care of plural wives (Deuteronomy 21:15-17).
  • Now, the author wishes to make Joseph bound by the marital codes of the Law of Moses. There are many other Law of Moses principles which Joseph did not keep either—but, neither does the author. A key tenet of Christianity is that the Law of Moses is no longer binding (e.g., Acts 15:20,29).
  • Joseph did not claim to practice plural marriage under biblical authority (Old Testament or otherwise), but on the basis of new revelation. He and his followers used the Old Testament as evidence that God did not always forbid plural marriage, but this is a different matter from believing they were re-enacting the Law of Moses' polygamy on the Bible's authority alone.

195, 547n117 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Joseph denounce polygamy as sinful and state that "monogamy was God's perfect design?"

Author's source(s)
  • Times and Seasons, March 15, 1843, vol. 4, no. 9, 143.
Response
  •  Misrepresentation of source: The cited source says nothing about polygamy being "sinful" or stating the "monogamy was God's perfect design for marital relationships."
  • The citation included by the author is a portion of a reprint in the T&S of a letter to the editor written by someone with the initials "H.R." and submitted to the Boston Bee:

We are charged with advocating a plurality of wives, and common property. Now this is as false as the many other ridiculous charges which are brought against us. No sect have a greater reverence for the laws of matrimony, or the rights of private property, and we do what others do not, practice what we preach.


196, 549n119 (HB) 547n119 (PB)

Claim
  •  Author's quote: "Apostates...preached against the evils thriving in Joseph's city of debauchery and despotism."

Author's source(s)
Response

197, 547n122 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Joseph destroy the Nauvoo Expositor because his "entire plan to rule the world" was about to be exposed?

Author's source(s)
  • Clayton, see Robert C. Fillerup, under June 22, 1844, in "Nauvoo Temple History Journal, William Clayton, 1845,".
  • Andrew F. Ehat, "'It Seems Like Heaven Began On Earth': Joseph Smith and the Constitution of the Kingdom of God," Brigham Young University Studies 20 (Spring 1980), 268.
Response

197, 547n124 (PB)

Claim
  • The Nauvoo Expositor told of women who "under penalty of death," were told that they were to be sealed to him as "spiritual wives."

Author's source(s)
  • Nauvoo Expositor, 2
Response

198

Claim
  • Did Joseph decide not to flee to Iowa because of 1) guilt for leaving, 2) he wouldn't be safe in Iowa, 3) there was no leadership left in Nauvoo and 4) the Nauvoo Legion was divided?

Author's source(s)
  • No sources provided.
Response

"But the river was only one factor in Joseph's gloom. He was landing in Iowa, where there was still a price on his head. The Governor of the Iowa Territory had never agreed not to extradite him to Missouri on the old charge of treason. Moreover, Joseph had neither equipment nor appetite for the lonely and savage western trails. And he could not stifle a sense of guilt at deserting his people..." (Brodie, No Man Knows My History p. 384)


199, 547-548n131-132 (PB)

Claim
  • Since Joseph wrote to Emma and said that he was "much resigned to my lot," why did he write a note to Jonathan Dunham telling him to bring the Nauvoo Legion and "break the jail, and save him at all costs?"

Author's source(s)
Response

199, 548n133 (PB)

Claim
  • Is it true that Dunham never brought the Nauvoo Legion because "[p]erhaps he was secretly dissatisfied with Smith's leadership?"

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

199, 548n133

Claim
  • Is it true, as Brodie claims, that nobody in Nauvoo other than Jonathan Dunham "knew of the prophet's peril?"

Author's source(s)
Response

199

Claim
  • There is no mention of the fact that the Carthage Greys, who were supposed to be guarding the prisoners, allowed the mob entry.

Author's source(s)
  • No citation provided.
Response

199

Claim
  • Is it true that Joseph had been "smuggled a six-shooter?"

Author's source(s)
  • No citation provided.
Response

Notes


  1. ↑ Hugh W. Nibley, Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass: The Art of Telling Tales About Joseph Smith and Brigham Young (Vol. 11 of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley), edited by David J. Whittaker, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1991), 128. ISBN 0875795161. GL direct link
  2. ↑ James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, 2nd edition revised and enlarged, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1992[1976]), 168–169. ISBN 087579565X. GospeLink
  3. ↑ Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 468–469.
  4. ↑ See: Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 5:86–87. Volume 5 link Brigham H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1965), 2:150. GospeLink Edwin Brown Firmage and Richard Collin Mangrum, Zion in the Courts : a Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 97. ISBN 0252069803.
  5. ↑ See: Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 5:179, 205–231. 205–231 Volume 5 link Edwin Brown Firmage and Richard Collin Mangrum, Zion in the Courts : a Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 100. ISBN 0252069803.
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